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Saturday, 23 July 2016

Hello friends! It feels like a really long time since my last post- not even a month, but it just feels like the longest time. I wanted to write a quick post about my frequent blogging hiatuses, and feelings of creativity and everything that goes along with that.

Anyone who's been following this blog for any length of time will have noticed that my posting is spasmodic at best. It's not that I don't love blogging, or that I find it a chore in any way. I genuinely adore it and the whole blogging process gives me so much joy, being able to do everything I love wrapped up in one fabulous hobby. I blog because I want to share my thoughts with other people, and create things, and take photos and write about fashion and post the odd photo of my cat. But I think that for quite a while now I forgot these basic reasons why I started blogging in the first place.

You'll have noticed if you've been reading B&L for a while that each year I've set myself the goal of posting once a week. Each time, I'll stick to it for a couple of weeks or a month at the most, but then I'll lose inspiration and get caught up in uni and just won't have the time to post. I feel this is a bit of an endless cycle for me; the more time that goes without posting, the more pressured I feel to produce content and so blogging ends up hanging over my head a bit. This has happened so many times and is just such a creativity killer for me.

I really care about this little space and I think I've gotten too caught up in writing for other people. I don't want to post something unless it's really high quality and my very best work. This is great in theory, but in reality it has meant that I get demoralised when an idea doesn't turn out how I originally envisaged it and I don't end up posting anything at all. I also get quite conflicted with the sort of content I want to be producing. I have grown to love fashion so much more since leaving school and really want to shift my blog to focus more on that aspect. But, on the flip side, will I come off as narcissistic? I also am yet to get over my embarrassment/reluctance around having people take photos of my outfits in public, which is obvi a major roadblock in the way for someone who wants to make fashion-related content.

I've been thinking a lot about this, and have decided it's time to bring it back to why I started blogging in the first place. From now on, I'm going to focus on what Iwant to write about and remind myself that this is all about expressing my own creativity. I don't want to set any big posting expectations on myself, either- I'll post when I want to and when I feel the creative urge. I'm not going to kick myself over not posting, or worry that I'm posting too much and oversaturating my readers. Some weeks I might post a lot and other times I won't, and that's okay.

I'm not entirely sure what changes (if any) there will be to the actual content of my blog, but you can expect:

While I do want to create content that Iwant to create, I also want to make sure it's things that you will enjoy. So please leave me a comment with any thoughts you might have- I am open to anything and would truly love to hear your thoughts on all this!

In conclusion, thank you so much to all of you who have stuck around and read my ramblings- I truly appreciate you all and am so incredibly thankful for your support! I'm so excited to embrace this change and start creating freely once again. Much love x

Monday, 4 July 2016

Hello! It is me! I am alive! My expression in the above photo pretty aptly describes all da feelz I'm having about this post. ASOS has been one of my go-to websites for online shopping for ages, and it is such a pleasure to be collaborating with them on this post for their Layer Up Australia campaign. I'll stop rabbiting on- behold my 3 top tips on how I'm layering knitwear this winter!

1. Start with good basics

Australia usually has very mild winters but sometimes it can get downright chilly. I like to wear a basic skivvy when layering up- something that's light enough and thin enough to be worn under other jumpers, but is still warm in its own right.

Another ~insider tip~ is to layer jumpers with a trusty old denim jacket. This is my all-day-every-day-go-to winter outfit and if you see me between June-August you probably think I never wash my clothes because I wear this so often. I layered the jumper and jacket on over the striped skivvy for extra warmth.

I never thought that there would be such a thing as a boho cardigan but THERE IS and it is pretty much the best thing of time. I love to keep the boho vibes going all winter long with this coin-trimmed cardigan that makes chiming sounds when you walk. I'm wearing it over a knitted top, and layered jewellery over the top to compliment the coin trim and break up the layers of knitwear. Take that, gloomy winter weather! You will never be able to stop me from dressing like I'm still in Byron!

And there we have it! Really hope you enjoyed, and a huge thank you again to ASOS for making this post possible! Have a look at the interactive map below to see what other bloggers from around Australia came up with for the Layer Up campaign. Catchya later internet pals x